Returning home from its maiden voyage, my buddy who was following told me the trailer had no brake or turn signals.

Hmmmm. Find a place to pull off the road. Peek at the wiring and a plug was disconnected.

Good put it back together, and the problem would be solved.

Nope. Left turn signal and brake light OK. Right side, no go.

Get it home. Put a voltage meter on the connections of the plug with the flashers on. Only one contact showing intermittent voltage. The other, nothing.

But all the lights on the truck are working properly. Has a wire that was connected during the hitch install come loose?

Call the installer. Bring it in next Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, I continue to ponder.

Is it just possible that since the truck is wired to the rear bumper, it has trailer circuits that are separate from the truck?

Pull out owners manual and check the various fuses. Sure enough, it does. Number one fuse in the box beneath the hood is for the trailer's right brake and signal light.

Pull the fuse. Yep, it's burned out. The trailer plug must have contacted the trailer frame while it had juice and shorted, causing the fuse to break the circuit.

Replace the fuse. Good to go, right? Well let's not be hasty. Check the plug with the four ways flashing. Voila, I now have two contacts showing intermittent power surges.

Great! All I need to do now is plug the harness together and all is well. Until I check and still have no brake or signal for the right tail light on the trailer.

The trailer has the sealed tail lights so I pull it out, take it into the garage and test it with my trolling motor battery.

Aha! The tail light works, but the filament for the brake and signal lights does not.

Get a new light, install it, and finally, at long last, everything works.

What are the odds that the fuse and the light would go at nearly the same time. The short was in the plug that went to the right side light, so it could not send electrical current to blow the brake light.

It was working when I left home to go to the pond. So it must have burned out somewhere along the route before the plug disconnected.

Wow, you're having a hell of a time with the new trailer for the boat.  Hope you get it all sorted out eventually.  Good thing you had a buddy following you.  I'm not sure how the cops are in your area, but down here they can get downright ridiculous about trailer lights being out.

Don, it's obvious that you have a faulty Coulomb Coupler on your framistan.  The faulty coupler will induce a Tesla capacitive discharge throughout the wiring of both the truck and the trailer, causing extensive extensive damage to both.  I suggest that you replace the coupler and then install a ten mega-henry terpoidial coil between the positive terminal of the framistan and ground.   

Wow, you're having a hell of a time with the new trailer for the boat. Hope you get it all sorted out eventually. Good thing you had a buddy following you. I'm not sure how the cops are in your area, but down here they can get downright ridiculous about trailer lights being out.

That's precisely why I wanted to run it some before taking it on a 1200 mile run.  Hopefully get all the bugs out of it.

None of the things are big deals, as far as getting them resolved.  Just should not happen on something new.  The grease fittings are replaced.  The pivot is greased as is the surge brake.  Wheels had plenty of grease, but I'll give them another shot before I head south.

At least it has a decent greasing system.  Zerx fitting on the end of the axle.  A channel brings the grease into the area between the inner seal and the bearing.  The grease flows outward from there through the outer bearing.

Clean up the excess that oozes out the end, put the rubber plug back in and done.

To me, it's not a big deal.  Was a commercial lobsterman for over 25 years, as captain of my own boat.  Did just about all the maintainence on it, and know just about all the things that can go wrong, particularly in a salt water environment.

But the inexperienced person who gets something like this will have nothing but headaches down the road, and some major expenses.

Don, it's obvious that you have a faulty Coulomb Coupler on your framistan. The faulty coupler will induce a Tesla capacitive discharge throughout the wiring of both the truck and the trailer, causing extensive extensive damage to both. I suggest that you replace the coupler and then install a ten mega-henry terpoidial coil between the positive terminal of the framistan and ground.

You're close, but it was actually a glitch in the van de graaf generator

Batting a thousand with the Nitro trailer. 

Don, it's obvious that you have a faulty Coulomb Coupler on your framistan. The faulty coupler will induce a Tesla capacitive discharge throughout the wiring of both the truck and the trailer, causing extensive extensive damage to both. I suggest that you replace the coupler and then install a ten mega-henry terpoidial coil between the positive terminal of the framistan and ground.

Could be right, but you might want to also check your discharge terminal orifice or your current flow electrode.

Batting a thousand with the Nitro trailer.

Some of it is the dealer, but the problems ofbeing penny wise and pound foolish lies with the manufacturer. The wires running through holes in the steel frame of the trailer with no rubber grommets or any type of chaffing gear being the prime example.

There can be no excuse for cutting corners on critical components.

And this from the opening page on their website when you click on boat showroom.

Build the best boat possible for the best price possible.

No compromises, no excuses and no shortcuts. That's the TRACKER® way.

Batting a thousand with the Nitro trailer.

Some of it is the dealer, but the problems ofbeing penny wise and pound foolish lies with the manufacturer. The wires running through holes in the steel frame of the trailer with no rubber grommets or any type of chaffing gear being the prime example.

There can be no excuse for cutting corners on critical components.

And this from the opening page on their website when you click on boat showroom.

Build the best boat possible for the best price possible.

No compromises, no excuses and no shortcuts. That's the TRACKER® Stratos way.

lol, sounds like my first trailer. Would blow out fuses on my truck. Could not find the wire causing the short. Finally gave up and went to the dealer, there was a very small hole in the insulation on one of the wires (I actually had gone right over it twice when inspecting it myself), that let it short out to the trailer frame. Man that ticked me off.